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Introduction

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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

The last American frontier, Alaska is the largest of the U.S. states in size but one of the smallest in population. Nearly everything about the 49th state is big. Its Denali (also called Mount McKinley) is higher than any other peak in North America. Its Yukon River is one of the longest navigable waterways in the world. Huge animals still thrive in its open spaces—grizzly, black, and polar bears; moose, caribou, musk-oxen, wolves; otter, walrus, seals, humpback and killer whales.

Alaska is a land of spectacular contrasts—smoking volcanoes and frozen tundra, hot springs and ice floes, creeping glaciers and virgin forests. This vast, raw, and rugged land thrusts a chain of volcanic islands more than a thousand miles southwest into the Bering Sea. Reaching beyond the international date line, the land area originally spanned four time zones. It juts northward far into the Arctic Circle, and to the south its Panhandle extends for miles between the Pacific Ocean and the Canadian Rockies.

The Stars and Stripes have flown over Alaska since March 30, 1867, when the vast land was purchased from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. In 1959 Alaska became the first new state since New Mexico and Arizona had achieved statehood in 1912, which was also the year Alaska was incorporated as a territory—the first step toward statehood.

The state is so large that it increased the area of the United States by a fifth. Alaska is more than twice the size of Texas, long its predecessor as the largest state. About a third of the vast area is forested, and glaciers cover about 29,000 square miles (75,000 square kilometers). The Malaspina glacier complex is larger than the state of Rhode Island.

The name Alaska comes from the Aleut word alaxsxaq, meaning “object toward which the action of the sea is directed”—that is, the mainland. Its nicknames are the Land of the Midnight Sun and America’s Last Frontier. It was once labeled “Seward’s folly” and “Seward’s icebox” in ridicule of the secretary of state who negotiated the purchase of what was considered a liability. Area 665,384 square miles (1,723,337). Population (2010) 710,231.

Survey of the Land of the Midnight Sun

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Art Sowls/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Alaska
occupies a huge peninsula, from which hang two long extensions. To the southwest stretch the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands chain. To the southeast is a 500-mile- (805-kilometer-) long strip bordering on British Columbia. On its eastern side the Alaskan mainland is adjacent to the Canadian territory of Yukon.

Northward, Alaska extends the United States to Point Barrow on the Arctic Ocean. About one third of Alaska is within the Arctic Circle. Westward, the Aleutian Islands chain stretches across the Pacific Ocean into the Eastern Hemisphere. Attu, Alaska’s westernmost island, is located at 173° E longitude. This is directly north of New Zealand. The distance from Attu, in the Aleutians, to Ketchikan, in the Panhandle, is greater than the distance from San Francisco, Calif., to New York City.

The tip of the Seward Peninsula, on the Alaskan mainland, is a little more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) across the Bering Strait from the Russian mainland. Through the Bering Strait runs the international date line. On one side is Little Diomede Island, a part of the United States. On the other side of the date line, a couple of miles away, is Big Diomede Island, which is part of Russia.

Natural Regions and Climate

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From north to south, the four main natural regions of Alaska are the Arctic Coastal Plain; the Rocky Mountain System; the Interior Plateau, basin of the great Yukon River; and the Pacific Mountain System. The long, narrow region that borders the Pacific includes three very different sections: the southeastern Panhandle, south-central Alaska, and the Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian Islands chain.

Arctic Coastal Plain

Nichole Andler/U.S. National Park Service

Josef Muench

Often called the North Slope, the Arctic Coastal Plain covers about a sixth of Alaska. The climate is the true Arctic type, with light snow and little rain. The soil is a treeless plain called tundra. Continuous sunshine in summer brings up mosses and bright flowers, even though the soil thaws only to a depth of a couple of feet. At Point Barrow the sun remains above the horizon for 84 consecutive days. During the short Arctic summer Alaska is host to nearly half the world population of some 12 bird species, the only North American populations of 24 species, and the only U.S. nesting population of about 50 species. (See alsoArctic regions.)

Rocky Mountain System

William Troyer/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The
coastal plain is separated from the Interior Plateau by the Rocky Mountain System. The backbone of the system is the Brooks Range, 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) long, a wilderness of ice and snow. Some peaks rise above 8,500 feet (2,600 meters). Only the southern foothills are forested. All of the Brooks Range is inside the Arctic Circle.

Interior Plateau

Kristine Sowl/Alaska Region U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

A vast rolling upland, the Interior Plateau by itself is larger than Texas. Westward across it flows the great Yukon River with its tributaries and the shorter Kuskokwim. On the Bering Sea these rivers have built up huge deltas. Millions of acres of subarctic forest are interspersed with marshes, lakes, and ponds. Spruce cover many slopes, and cottonwood thrive near river lowlands.

The climate in this region is the extreme continental type, with a wide range from summer to winter. Temperatures commonly drop to –55° F (–48° C) in the winter. Annual precipitation (rain and snow) is 8 to 15 inches (20 to 38 centimeters). Summers are short, but daylight can last up to 21 hours, and the temperature rises as high as 100° F (38° C). During the summer the topsoil thaws, but the frozen subsoil in some areas causes water to remain on the surface.

Pacific Mountain System

Alaska’s entire southern coast is part of the Pacific Mountain System, a series of mountain ranges that extend down the western coast of North America to Mexico. The climate is the cool wet marine type, tempered by warm ocean currents and warm winds from the Asian mainland.

Geographically, the Panhandle is the coastal section of northern British Columbia. The mainland part of the Panhandle is a narrow strip of land 25 to 50 miles (40 to 80 kilometers) wide extending east and south from the St. Elias Mountains. The Coast Mountains rise sharply almost from the water’s edge. Off the coast an outer range of mountains forms the islands of the Alexander Archipelago. The most beautiful approach to Alaska is by boat through the famous Inside Passage between the more than a thousand islands and the mainland. The lower mountain slopes are covered with dense forests of spruce, hemlock, and cedar that are the basis for the region’s timber industry. The tops of the mountains are capped with ice. Glaciers flowing down their sides have deepened the river valleys to form mountain-walled fjords like those in Norway.

Few peaks in the Coast Mountains are higher than 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). To the north, where the coastline turns westward, rise the lofty St. Elias Mountains. Here vast glaciers fill the valleys. Malaspina Glacier, the largest, pours down from Mount St. Elias (18,008 feet; 5,489 meters).

Temperatures in the southeastern part of the Panhandle are moderate year-round due to the Hawaiian Current. The averages range from 50° to 60° F (10° to 16° C) in July to 20° to 40° F (–7° to 4° C) in January. The Panhandle is one of the wettest regions in North America. Most of the rain falls from August to December. The heavy rainfall gives rise to great glaciers and to many streams, where Pacific salmon spawn. The largest forest growth of the state is the Tongass National Forest in the Panhandle.

Bob Wick/U.S. Bureau of Land Management

South-central Alaska extends from the Panhandle to Cook Inlet. It includes the coastal Chugach Mountains, which are the western extension of the St. Elias Mountains. The Chugach National Forest covers their southern slopes. This range blends with the Kenai Mountains, backbone of the Kenai Peninsula, and is continued in the low mountains of Kodiak Island. Like the Panhandle, the peninsula and the island have a mild climate and ample rainfall. The mainland climate is colder but drier. In this region the spectacular Alaska Range, 150 miles (240 kilometers) wide, sweeps inland in a 400-mile (650-kilometer) arc, separating the coastal region from the Interior Plateau. The crown of this range is Denali, the tallest peak in North America at 20,320 feet (6,194 meters).

In southwestern Alaska are the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands. From Naknek Lake the peninsula curves about 500 miles (805 kilometers) to where the Aleutian Islands continue southwest for another thousand miles. This area is primarily mountainous, with more than 50 volcanic peaks—some of which are active volcanoes. The Aleutian climate is cool with temperatures ranging up to 50° F (10° C) or higher in the summer and down to 20° F (–7° C) or lower in the winter. Winds and fog are common on the Aleutian Islands because they are mostly treeless.

Natural Resources

Nancy Simmerman/Tony Stone Worldwide

The United States owned 99 percent of the land within the Territory of Alaska. The statehood act provided for deeding to the state, within 25 years, up to 103,350,000 acres (41,824,000 hectares)—more than a quarter of Alaska’s total area. (Alaska selected the lands for takeover.) Lands taken over by the state could be sold to individuals or corporations for farms, homesites, or factory sites. Ownership did not include mineral rights, which could be leased by the state. Producing oil wells were required to pay royalties to the state.

In 1971 Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which awarded the native peoples nearly a billion dollars and more than 40 million acres (16 million hectares) of land. Native corporations were established to manage the terms of the settlement.

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Alaska
is responsible for the management of fisheries and wildlife resources on all but federally owned lands. The state constitution provides that replenishable resources belonging to the state—fish, wildlife, forests, and grasslands—be utilized on the “sustained yield” principle. According to this principle of conservation, only the annual surplus or increase of the resources should ever be used so as not to decrease the basic stock of animals or the supply of trees and grasslands. Millions of waterfowl summer on Alaska’s rocky islands and expansive wetlands. Birds of prey include bald and golden eagles, owls, hawks, and falcons. The willow ptarmigan (Arctic grouse), seen in flocks of several hundred, is the state bird. Fur seals breed on the Pribilof Islands. Sea otters, once hunted almost to extinction, are now carefully protected.

The finest big-game hunting and fishing in the United States is available in Alaska. Among the many types of brown bears found in the state is the famous Kodiak—a type of grizzly bear that is the largest of all living carnivorous land mammals, weighing up to 1,700 pounds (770 kilograms). Other native species are the black and polar bears. Alaskan wildlife also includes caribou (reindeer), moose, elk, bison, Sitka black-tailed deer, the Dall sheep, and the mountain goat. Reindeer, or domesticated caribou, are herded in parts of western Alaska.

The state’s waterpower resources are enormous, but they have not yet been fully exploited. Still, hydroelectric plants are Alaska’s leading source of renewable energy. Most existing hydroelectric projects serve the southeast and south-central parts of the state. Snettisham, near Juneau, Eklutna, near Anchorage, and Bradley Lake on the Kenai Peninsula, are the largest.

People

Alaska is so thinly populated that there is still almost 1 square mile (2.6 square kilometers) of land for each person. The most rapid population growth occurred immediately after World War II. In 1940 the population was 72,524; by 2010 it had risen to more than 710,000. The majority of Alaskans live in or near cities in the south-central and southeastern parts of the state. About one fifth of the people live in small communities along rivers, highways, or the coast, many of which are in Arctic and western Alaska.

Accent Alaska.com/Alamy

Native peoples—Eskimo, Aleut, and American Indians—make up about one seventh of Alaska’s population. Together these peoples are often called Native Alaskans. The Eskimo (including the Inuit, Yupik, and Inupiat) are the most numerous of the three groups. They have traditionally lived along the Arctic Ocean–Bering Sea coast and in the great deltas formed by the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. The closely related Aleut are native to the Aleutian Islands and the western part of the Alaska Peninsula. The Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Indians live on islands and coasts of the Panhandle and have traditionally been known for their woodworking skills, especially their elaborately carved and decorated totem poles. Various Indian peoples who speak Athabaskan languages live in thinly scattered villages in the interior. Some Native Alaskans have continued in traditional occupations such as fishing, hunting, and fur trapping. However, many who live in larger villages and cities now choose nontraditional jobs in business or in government. (See alsoAmerican Arctic peoples; American Subarctic peoples; Northwest Coast Indians.)

Most of the rest of Alaska’s population is of European descent. The mixture of English, Russian, Spanish, and French place-names found in the state reflect its early exploration by a number of European countries. In the early 21st century the majority of Alaska’s residents had been born out of state, though the Alaskan-born population had increased as well. At the same time the number of immigrants from outside the United States had steadily increased. The great majority of these immigrants came from Mexico, Korea, Vietnam, China, Russia, and Germany.

Cities

Frank Kovalchek

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

About two thirds of Alaskans live in towns and cities. Although the larger towns are as modern as those in the other states, they are widely separated and surrounded by sparsely populated areas. Some can be reached only by ship, riverboat, or airplane.

Anchorage is by far the largest city in Alaska. It is situated in the south-central part of the state at the head of Cook Inlet on a bluff overlooking Knik Arm. A key aviation and defense center, Anchorage has grown rapidly—particularly during the oil boom of the 1970s. Its population grew from 48,081 in 1970 to 174,431 in 1980—a 10-year gain of about 260 percent. In 1964 a portion of Anchorage’s downtown section was demolished by an earthquake, but the city was quickly rebuilt.

Ted McGrath

Juneau, the capital, is near the northern end of the Panhandle. It is the only U.S. capital that can be reached solely by air or water. Its chief industries, apart from government, are tourism, mining, fishing, and forestry. Juneau often reminds tourists of San Francisco because of the houses strung together along winding roads against the mountainsides. Near the city is the Greens Creek mine, one of the largest silver mines in the United States.

The city of Fairbanks is situated on the broad Interior Plateau on the Chena River near the Tanana, the chief tributary of the Yukon. Its major importance is as the transportation hub for the remote areas on the plateau and in the Arctic region—for example, the oil fields on the North Slope and the interior villages. It is the northern terminus of the Alaska Railroad and the Alaska, George Parks, and Richardson highways as well as the southern terminus of the Steese Highway. Just north of the city, the Elliott Highway connects to the Dalton Highway, which leads to Prudhoe Bay.

Ketchikan,
in the Panhandle, is the first port of call in Alaska for northbound ships. It has a diversified economy, with fishing, fish processing, timber, and tourism as leading industries.

Recreation

Jeff Schultz—Alaska Stock Images/age fotostock

The official state sport of Alaska is dogsled racing, which ranges from sprints to long-distance treks. The most famous race is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Since its beginning in 1967, it has grown from an approximately 27-mile (43-kilometer) to a 1,150-mile (1,850-kilometer) race. Each July Fairbanks hosts the annual World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, in which native peoples from Alaska, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest compete in traditional Alaskan competitions. The University of Alaska Fairbanks and the University of Alaska Anchorage compete in men’s and women’s basketball and skiing as well as in men’s hockey, among other sports.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Opportunities for outdoor recreation abound in every part of the state. In 1980 the federal government designated more than 100 million acres (40.5 million hectares) for national parks, preserves, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas, adding to the 7.5 million acres (3 million hectares) already established. One of the largest ice-carving festivals in the world is held annually in Fairbanks.

Education

Alaska’s constitution provides for education for all children. Villages with even a handful of students are provided with public schools. Children who are unable to reach a village may take courses through publicly funded correspondence schools. Some students in these schools have only monthly contact with their teachers.

The University of Alaska, a land-grant college, was opened in 1922 near Fairbanks. In addition, there are major campuses at Anchorage and Juneau and numerous branch campuses. Private institutions in the state include Alaska Pacific University and Wayland Baptist University, both in Anchorage, and Alaska Bible College, in Glennallen.

Economy

Alaska’s remoteness has always been a challenge to its economy. The vast expanses within the state, combined with the distance from major population centers, have made the transportation of goods to and from Alaska very expensive. Major improvements in infrastructure, however, have significantly lowered these costs and promoted economic growth. Alaska’s present-day economy is based on oil production, fishing, tourism, and government.

Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry

Frederick Myers/Tony Stone Worldwide

Very
little of Alaska’s vast area is suitable for farming, and the state imports most of its food. The state government promoted agricultural expansion in the 1970s, but the amount of cultivable land brought into production was small, and no major expansions have been made since then. The best farmland is in the Matanuska Valley, northeast of Anchorage; in the Tanana River valley, near Fairbanks; and to a lesser degree in the lowlands of the Kenai Peninsula.

The growing season—that is, the time between killing frosts—is short, but plants grow rapidly because of the long summer daylight. Potatoes, carrots, cabbages, and other vegetables grow to enormous size. Other important crops include barley, hay, and greenhouse plants and vegetables. Alaskan farmers also raise dairy and beef cattle, pigs, and sheep, though the animals must spend much of the year indoors because of the climate.

iStockphoto/Thinkstock

Alaska’s fishing industry is among the largest in the United States. Salmon of various species is an especially valuable product. The centers of the world’s salmon-packing industry are at Ketchikan, on Kodiak Island; in the city of Unalaska, in Bristol Bay; and in Prince William Sound. Commercial fishing fleets also bring in significant quantities of herring, cod, pollack, halibut, and crabs. Oysters and clams are harvested on aquatic farms.

Henryhartley

Alaska has two types of forest: interior (or boreal) and coastal. The interior forests consist of extensive stands of primarily white spruce, Alaska paper birch, black cottonwood, balsam poplar, and quaking aspen. These forests occupy nearly a third of the land in Alaska, but they have been little worked. Logging occurs mainly in the cool, temperate rainforests along the south-central coast and in the Panhandle, where deep inlets make the timber more readily accessible. Much of Alaska’s commercial timber comes from two national forests in this region: Tongass and Chugach. The principal trees are western hemlock and Sitka spruce, intermixed with some western red cedar and Alaska yellow cedar.

Industry

The chief industry in Alaska is mining. Among the important mines are the Fort Knox and Pogo gold mines near Fairbanks and the Red Dog zinc mine near Kotzebue. A major molybdenum deposit exists near Ketchikan but has not been developed. The Greens Creek Mine near Juneau is one of the largest sources of silver in the United States and also produces lead, zinc, copper, and gold. Newer initiatives include the Kensington gold mine, located about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north-northwest of Juneau, and the Pebble Project, a mineral exploration plan in the Bristol Bay region, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage.

Frank Lane/Tony Stone Worldwide

Important petroleum operations in Alaska began with the discovery of oil on the Kenai Peninsula in 1957. The petroleum and natural gas industry soon surpassed the other types of Alaskan mineral production. In 1968 the largest petroleum deposits in North America were discovered in Prudhoe Bay, on the northern coast. The Trans-Alaska Pipeline, completed in 1977, links the area to the all-year port of Valdez, 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) to the south. The construction of the pipeline and the increase in oil production brought about significant growth of Alaska’s economy and population. Petroleum production peaked in the 1990s and has been steadily decreasing since then, but Alaska’s potential oil reserves are still very large.

Services

Robert Glusic/Getty Images

R. McGimsey/U.S. Geological Survey

Services
are the dominant economic activity of Alaska in terms of both earnings and employment. One of the leading service industries is tourism, which has expanded since the mid-20th century. Most visitors arrive in southeast Alaska by cruise ships. The most popular tourist destination is Denali National Park and Preserve, with the spectacular Alaska Range and its glaciers. Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve and Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve have magnificent fjords and glaciers and extensive bird and animal life. Totem poles are the principal attractions of Sitka National Historical Park, in the Panhandle. Katmai National Park and Preserve, on the Alaska Peninsula, is noted for its volcanoes.

Government is a major source of employment in Alaska. The U.S. Air Force moved its training facilities from the Philippines to Alaska in 1991. Since that time, the military presence has significantly increased in the state, including the expansion of military bases at Anchorage and Fairbanks. State and local governments also employ many Alaskans.

Transportation

The
backbone of transportation in Alaska is the airplane, which provides the fastest way to cross the state’s great distances and difficult terrain. Numerous national airlines serve Alaska, and there are international airports at Anchorage, Fairbanks, Juneau, and Ketchikan. In addition to scheduled flights, there are the experienced bush pilots who operate their own planes and will fly anywhere, weather permitting.

Bill Harris/Tony Stone Worldwide

Al Grillo/AP

Most
of Alaska’s major highways are surfaced, but gravel roads still exist. The Dalton Highway, a 414-mile (666-kilometer) road paralleling the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, runs from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. It connects with other highways to provide an overland route from the ice-free southern ports to the Arctic Ocean. The Alaska Highway was built during World War II and has been significantly improved by both Canada and the United States. It connects Dawson Creek, B.C., with Fairbanks.

Ocean shipping connects towns of Alaska’s Panhandle and southern coast with Seattle, Wash., Vancouver, B.C., and Prince Rupert, B.C. During the ice-free midsummer months, oceangoing ships also stop in Nome, in western Alaska, and Barrow and Prudhoe Bay, in the north. Anchorage is Alaska’s major port for imports. Petroleum is exported from Kenai and Valdez, and fish are exported from southeast port cities, particularly Kodiak and Unalaska. A ferry system with passenger and vehicle service runs from Bellingham, Wash., or Prince Rupert, B.C., northward across the Gulf of Alaska, into Prince William Sound, and onto the Aleutian Islands.

The state-owned and state-operated Alaska Railroad runs for about 500 miles (800 kilometers), linking Seward, Anchorage, and Fairbanks. The White Pass and Yukon Route Railway travels from Skagway into Yukon.

Government

In preparation for statehood, representatives from across Alaska gathered to draft a constitution, which was ratified by the voters in 1956. It was praised as a model constitution and approved by Congress in the statehood bill of 1959.

The governor and lieutenant governor are the only elected executive officers and are elected for four-year terms. The governor has the power to appoint the heads of all major departments, subject to confirmation by the legislature, and the judges, subject to approval by the voters. The constitution provides for 40 election districts, based on population. The redistricting board is required to reapportion the districts after each U.S. census. The people may propose and enact laws by initiative and approve or reject acts of the legislature by referendum. Elected officials, except judicial officers, are subject to recall by the voters.

Local government powers are vested in boroughs, cities, and unincorporated villages. A borough is governed by an assembly and a city by a council. Each borough embraces an area and population with common interests. Native Alaskans are organized into 12 regional native corporations and 220 village corporations that were established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971. The act also collectively awarded Native Alaskans almost 1 billion dollars and 44 million acres (17.8 hectares) of federal land. The corporations are similar to tribal organizations, though they function as conventional for-profit business corporations. The profits from mineral resources found on native land are shared among all the corporations.

History

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People
have lived in Alaska since about 10,000 bc. At that time a land bridge extended from Siberia to eastern Alaska, and migrants followed herds of animals across it (seeAmerican Indians). Of these migrant groups, the Athabaskans, Aleut, Inuit, Yupik, Tlingit, and Haida remain in Alaska.

European Exploration and Settlement

North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy

In
1724 Peter the Great, czar of Russia, ordered Vitus Bering, a Dane in the service of the Russian navy, to explore the land east of Siberia. On his second trip, in 1741, Bering visited the Alaskan mainland and established the original Russian claim to the region. He died on the return voyage, but part of his crew made their way back to Russia. Their tales of wealth in furs sent trappers and traders to exploit the new lands.

Russian fur traders set up their first outpost at Three Saints Bay on Kodiak Island in 1784. The Aleut living on the land were cheated, abused, and massacred, and many died of diseases brought by the Russians. Fur-bearing animals of sea and land were wantonly slaughtered. The sea otter was almost exterminated. Some of the abuses were reduced when, in 1799, the Russian emperor Paul I chartered the Russian-American Company to administer the settlements. The director for 19 years was Alexander Baranov, who ruled Russian America like an emperor. After a group of Tlingit destroyed the Russian settlement of Mikhailovsk in 1802, the Russian colonists retaliated by destroying the native people’s village in 1804 and establishing nearby New Archangel (now Sitka) on the site. It eventually became the headquarters of the Russian-American Company and therefore the capital of the colony. Sometimes called the Paris of the Pacific, it was transformed into the most brilliant royal court in America. Alaska’s many Russian Orthodox churches with their onion-shaped domes date from this period.

District and Territory

Russia tried to sell its North American possession to the United States as early as 1855. American and British competition had made the Russian-American Company unprofitable, and Russian involvement in the Crimean War left the Alaskan colony vulnerable. The U.S. treaty to purchase the land was negotiated in 1867 at the insistence of Secretary of State William H. Seward during the administration of President Andrew Johnson. The price paid was 7.2 million dollars. Charles Sumner supported the measure in the Senate and suggested the present name of the new possession. The date of the transfer of ownership was October 18, now celebrated as Alaska Day.

The skeptical American people, believing that the land had nothing to offer, called Alaska “Seward’s folly” and “Seward’s icebox.” The Army, the Department of the Treasury, and the Navy in turn took charge of the region. No civil government was provided until 1884, when Alaska became a district governed by the laws of the state of Oregon.

Rare Book and Special Collections Division/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

A violent, colorful era began with the discovery of gold in the Klondike region of Canada in 1896. Hordes of prospectors traveled the most accessible route, through Skagway in southeastern Alaska. Before the Klondike strike subsided, a fresh rush began at Nome, on the Seward Peninsula. Again, in 1902, there was a scramble to stake claims in the Fairbanks region.

A dispute between the United States and Canada over the boundary between British Columbia and the Alaska Panhandle was decided by an Alaska Boundary Tribunal in 1903. The Second Organic Act of 1912, signed by President William Howard Taft on August 24, made Alaska an incorporated territory. Construction of the Alaska Railroad connecting Seward with Anchorage and Fairbanks was completed in 1923.

In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces occupied and fortified Kiska, Attu, and Agattu islands in the Aleutian chain. To ensure Alaska’s safety, the United States hurried construction of large airfields and the Alaska Highway. In the summer of 1943 U.S. forces, aided by Canadian troops, recaptured the islands. During the war the U.S. Army uprooted most of the Aleut from the Aleutian Islands and sent them to work in canneries, sawmills, hospitals, schools, or to internment camps in Juneau or on the southeastern islands. Disease—particularly influenza and tuberculosis—killed many Aleut during this period.

Statehood

For more than 40 years Alaskans sought statehood. A convention of 55 delegates drafted a constitution in a meeting held at the University of Alaska from November 1955 to January 1956. In April the voters ratified it—17,447 to 7,180. They also approved the Tennessee Plan, by which they later elected two unofficial senators and one representative to plead their cause in the federal Congress.

On June 30, 1958, the U.S. Senate voted 64 to 20 its approval of the statehood bill that had been passed by the House of Representatives. A state referendum supported it by a 5-to-1 margin. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the statehood proclamation on Jan. 3, 1959, and Alaska officially became the 49th state.

U.S. Geological Survey

During
the 20th century nearly 40 earthquakes measuring at least 7.25 on the Richter scale were recorded in Alaska. On March 27, 1964, the most intense earthquake ever recorded in North America struck southern Alaska. The death toll was only 131 because of the low density of the state’s population, but property damage was high. Much of downtown Anchorage was destroyed.

Oil and natural gas discoveries in the Kenai Peninsula and offshore drilling in Cook Inlet in the 1950s created an industry that transformed Alaska’s economy. Production accelerated after the discovery of oil along the Arctic coast in the late 1960s and the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s.

U.S. Coast Guard

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council/NOAA (ID: line1532)

Alaska’s key industry has been a controversial one. The most disastrous oil spill in North American history occurred off the Alaska coast in 1989, when the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled almost 11 million gallons (42,000 kiloliters) of crude oil into Prince William Sound. The spill caused extensive damage to wildlife, wilderness areas, and commercial fishing. Another disastrous oil spill occurred in 2004, when a vessel broke apart in the Aleutian Islands and released about 350,000 gallons (1,320,000 liters) of oil into the ocean. These catastrophes played a significant role in the debate among environmentalists, government officials, and business leaders over whether to open up more government-owned land in Alaska to oil exploration.

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